


Lungs

by legendofthesevenstars



Category: Tenkuu no Escaflowne | The Vision of Escaflowne
Genre: Free Verse, Gen, Poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-26
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2020-03-17 16:00:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18968545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/legendofthesevenstars/pseuds/legendofthesevenstars
Summary: Between herself and Dilandau, Celena dreams.





	Lungs

I.

In the first dream  
fire surrounds her,  
licking at her heels  
climbing up and up  
toward the gray heavens.

The houses are made  
of straw,  
and like haystacks they  
light up,  
and inside her head  
he laughs,  
and she burns.

II.

In the second dream  
the dying are screaming:  
mutilated yelps  
of men and dogs  
and dogmen,  
shrill screeches  
of children and babies,  
muffled gasps  
of Dilandau’s victims,  
Van’s war cry,  
a death knell for his men— 

One day  
when she was with Allen  
she saw a hawk swoop  
to catch a bird  
singing on a branch.  
She cried for an hour  
though he explained  
the hawk wasn’t killing  
merely because the bird  
was singing. 

III.

In the third dream  
he is alone  
and because he is alone  
she starts to surface.  
Because she starts to surface  
they strap him to a table  
and inject him  
and he goes under  
and he forgets her  
and forgets that he is alone,  
for now.

IV.

In the fourth dream  
she is drowning  
in liquid steel. 

It didn’t stop at her neck.  
Now she is choking  
and desperate. 

Inhaling all the air  
that she can get,  
gulping lungfuls of it.

When she wakes  
she opens the window in her bedroom  
and, naked, escapes.

V.

In the fifth dream  
they are dying.  
Not his men,  
but the ones she loves. 

Jajuka goes first,  
slain by Van  
by pure accident.

He tells her to come back. 

Allen is next.  
Van slips  
and his sword crushes  
his Guymelef’s skull.

He tells her to live. 

Usually, she wakes up  
after that.  
But sometimes,  
it continues,  
and she’s the murderer.

In some foreign world  
she stabs her Mama and Papa  
by his hand.  
In some nightmare world  
he kills Van  
and kills Millerna  
and kills Merle  
Eries  
Dryden  
Hitomi  
Chid… 

…and she opens her eyes, gasping  
for lungfuls of air  
to oxygenate her brain,  
so that she can remember  
none of it ever happened,  
and that downstairs  
Allen sits, groggy,  
by the fireplace,  
in his nightshirt,  
his hair tied back,  
and a teapot waits on the stove  
for her… 

…but in her dreams,  
they are always drowning.


End file.
